Buy Saratoga But Never Use It?

[wackywexler]

Hi, I am a Disneyland Lover, tried WDW last year, glad I tried it, but am happy to stick with my old favorite,DLR. They are heavily promoting DVC out here. In my annual passholders magazine, BACKSTAGEPASS, it said that through April 30th APs can save 15% on a DVC club membership. In the fine print it said that current prices start at $15,150, I wonder how many points that is?

Question ? if I have little intention of going back to WDW could DVC still make sense for me and my family?

1. I would use the points at Disneyland Resort Hotels
2. I would like to trade a week at SSR with Interval International to get
other luxury resorts like Hawaii or Europe, I hear DVC has great
trading power
3. We might chose to go to WDW every five years or so

Would it be silly of us to buy DVC with the above intentions?

Your thoughts and input are appreciated

 

[drdisney]

Being from SoCal myself (Gardena) I am in the same boat you are in. I am in the middle of escrow on a 130 point plan at SSR. Since I live pretty far away from WDW, I am planning to take a trip every few years. Now you can use the points for what you are looking to do , But you will find most people on this board agree that it is better to sell your points for cash then use the cash to pay for the rooms. The reason being is that Disney's Values on the points come out to about $7.50 and you could just rent those for about $10. There are some pros and cons about it though. Another option to look into is buy buying the plan through resale. When you buy direct through DVC you buy a minimum of 150 points . When you buy through resale you can buy any amount, But if the price is too low Disney could just buy it back back before you (See ROFR).Either way good luck on your quest.

Dr D
Crossing my Fingers while waiting for ROFR

 

[gppnj]

The only problem with that plan is that the point costs of staying at the Disneyland hotels are not guaranteed. The costs are pretty fair right now, especially because they've been lowered. However, they can and will go up. Therefore, you'll be getting less for your points each year. By contrast, the DVC resort points costs can be adjusted, but there can never be a net increase.

If I were in your shoes, I'd hold off on DVC until a California DVC resort was announced. Considering the recent push to sell in California, I thought that would have happened already. I'm sure Disney regrets not building a DVC in California years ago.

 

[CarolMN]

Hi, I am a Disneyland Lover, tried WDW last year, glad I tried it, but am happy to stick with my old favorite,DLR. They are heavily promoting DVC out here. In my annual passholders magazine, BACKSTAGEPASS, it said that through April 30th APs can save 15% on a DVC club membership. In the fine print it said that current prices start at $15,150, I wonder how many points that is?

Question ? if I have little intention of going back to WDW could DVC still make sense for me and my family?

1. I would use the points at Disneyland Resort Hotels
2. I would like to trade a week at SSR with Interval International to get
other luxury resorts like Hawaii or Europe, I hear DVC has great
trading power
3. We might chose to go to WDW every five years or so

Would it be silly of us to buy DVC with the above intentions?

Your thoughts and input are appreciated

IMHO, yes, it would be silly to buy DVC given how you'd use it. Silly because you'd be spending more money than you 'd have to spend to accomplish your stated vacation objectives.

I think you'd be much better off looking into a less expensive timeshare for trading purposes (there are other timeshares that are as good or better traders than DVC). If you purchase your timeshare wisely, you could even use it to trade INTO DVC every 5 years or so. My advice re DLR stays is to use your AP and look for cash discounts. You'll almost always do better than using points - the best value of a DVC point is using it to stay at ta DVC resort. If you're not going to do that most of the time, you're pretty much paying a lot of money to have DVC be your Travel Agent - and you can't even go everywhere you might want to go if you use DVC points to pay.

JMHO. YMMV.

Best wishes -

 

[wackywexler]

Very good points made, I appreciate it, thank you!